Fatal Frame: Black Rose
by Crimson-Juno
Summary: Not necesarily the third installment of the survival horror game Fatal Frame, but it is based from the games and even ties in with FF2: Crimson Butterfly. New characters, ghosts, setting, and chilling plot. PG for mild suspense and ghost horror.


Disclaimer I did not originally create Fatal Frame or any of the  
characters from either the first or second Fatal Frame. All other  
characters under the title Fatal Frame: Black Rose are copyright to me. (FYI: I wrote this at around midnight, so forgive any mistakes as well as the sloppyness of the ending as I got sleepier. But I've had this idea for  
a while... so enjoy! .) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
Seventeen-year-old Sachi Minagawa took in a deep breath, held it, and released it slowly, watching a small cloud form in the chill air. It was chilly, but pleasantly so. A few leaves from a nearby tree, goldened from the turning of the seasons, broke away and fluttered through the air. Carried by a slight breeze, they landed inches from Sachi's feet. She reached one of her pale hands down and picked one up. She held it by the stem and twirled it in her fingers, eyeing it from all angles. There came another breeze that tossled her ebony hair and made her shiver. She opened her hand, and watched the leaf fly off into the night.  
"Onna?" Sachi turned at the sound of her sister's voice and smiled. She patted a place next to her on the small bench she sat on, indicating for her to come and sit. The little girl smiled back, and happily sat down. Sachi eyed her little sister lovingly. Her face was as pale and round as Sachi's, but her nose was shaped a little differently, and her upper lip had a more pronounced curve. Her hair was a dark brown, only a shade away from being black, and in the moonlight revealed red highlights. The little girl turned her head and met her big sister's gaze. She tilted her head slightly and smiled, a beam of light making her brown eyes dazzle like gems.  
"I've been looking for you for a while onna." she said matter of factly. Sachi cocked an eyebrow at the eight-year-old and laughed quietly.  
"And you just now thought to look out here? Where else would I be?" The little girl smiled crookedly and shrugged her small shoulders.  
"I dunno. I looked all over obasan's house and couldn't find you. It's a big house Sachi-kun." Sachi wrapped an arm around her sister and pulled her into a playful hug.  
"Still, you couldn't have been looking for me that long Keito-chan." Keito giggled and pulled away from her sister. Sachi smiled again, and looked back into the night. She inhaled deeply, and as before, released it slowly. The two sisters sat in silence for a while; listening to the wind blowing through the trees and admiring the beautiful October weather.  
The bench they sat on was in the middle of a small garden at the back of their grandmother's property. About twenty yards from where they sat, the spread out, carefully trimmed trees of the garden became the more numerous and taller trees of the woods. Looking at their pointed tops against the clear, starlit sky, Sachi thought of a time when she was little and had almost wandered into these very woods.  
She had been six, she remembered, when a ball she had been playing with fell from her hands and rolled away. She had followed it to the edge of the garden, and watched in childish horror as it rolled into the trees of the dark woods and out of sight. She had been told since she was a baby that the woods were unsafe; that any woods were dangerous and no place to "wander into", as her grandmother would say. Despite the warning voice of her grandmother in her head, she had gulped in fear and slowly walked towards the tall, knarled trees. Only a few feet away from them, a warm hand had grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to the house. She had looked up at her grandmother with fearful eyes, and was surprised to see that same fear mirrored in the older woman's. Her grandmother had held her shoulders as tears welled up in her worn, dark eyes.  
_"Please dear, don't wander away. I don't want to lose you too."  
_  
Sachi was still deep in thought when Keito suddenly grabbed her arm.  
"Sachi! Look over there!" Sachi, startled by her sister's sudden outburst, jerked her arm away with an irritated grunt.  
"Keito! What the he-..." she started to yell, but one look at her sister's face froze the words in her throat. The younger girl's eyes were wide with shock, and her mouth was slightly open in silent awe. "Onna- chan?" she asked hesitantly. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Keito slowly turned her head toward her sister, and with a shaking hand pointed toward the woods.  
"I think..." she said quietly. "I think I just did."  
Slowly, Sachi followed the direction of Keito's trembling hand until she was looking at a small gap in the trees no more than four feet wide. For a few seconds, nothing happened, and Sachi's heart began to pound painfully in her chest in anticipation. When she felt as if her chest was at the breaking point, a sudden movement caught her eye. There, peering from around the trunk of a tree just to the left of the gap, was the pale face of a little girl.  
Sachi gasped and stepped backward, stumbling on the bench and falling with a dull thud on her backside. She closed her eyes tightly and winced, the pain from the fall temporarily making her forget her fright. But when she opened her eyes, her fear came back as she saw Keito disappear into the gap.  
Slowly, Sachi stood up on wobbly legs as she looked at the place her sister had been only seconds ago. As she stood there, the wind brought to her ears the sound of a child laughing, coming from within the woods. But it wasn't Keito's laugh. Sachi's heart began pounding again, and without thinking, she ran towards the trees.  
"Keito! Keito come back!!" she yelled as she too disappeared between the two large trees. She ran as fast as she could, following a path that led from the gap at the edge of the wood. The trees around her were so thickly branched that only a few beams of light could break through, making it hard for her to see what was only a few feet in front of her.  
As she ran, Sachi became aware of sounds coming from the woods. She could hear the sound of a woman crying, as well as the child's laughter from before. It wasn't long after that she began to hear voices as well.  
_Help!_ one of them cried.  
_I don't want to die!_ screamed another. Fear flowed through Sachi's veins with pulsing force, driving her to run faster.  
"Keito!" she yelled again. "Please come back Keito!" But the only answer she got was that of unfamiliar voices, calling out to her from the dark.  
_ Please help me!  
Come back... oh please come back...  
I don't want to die! I'm sorry... I can't be.... You hate me.... Why do you hate me?! Why did you... Come back don't want to die hate me help please you left come back dont want to die if you hate mecomebackIcan'tbehappyanymorewhaydidyoumakehimegocomebackhelphelpdontwantyo uleftwh-...  
  
_ "_I don't want to lose you too_."  
  
Sachi came to a stop so fast she almost tumbled over. She steadied herself, then looked around at the place she had come to. She stood in the middle of a small clearing, the only area where the moonlight was able to shine through. But as she looked up at the sky, she noticed the moon was partially covered by a thick layer of gray clouds that hadn't been there when she last looked at it from the garden only minutes ago. A thick fog hovered above the ground, making the woods seem even spookier than before. A sudden gust of freezing cold air blew through the trees, freezing her ears and nose.  
She shook her head gently to let her dark hair fall over her ears, and cupped her hands around her mouth and nose and blew into them. She brought her hands back down and rubbed them together furiously. The air had gone from autumn chilly, to winter freezing in mere seconds, and Sachi shivered in her thin jacket. She was confused at the sudden change in weather, as well as freezing cold, but at least the voices had stopped.  
The crack of a twig made Sachi jump, and she spun around in the directon the sound had come from. She didn't see anything, but after stepping a few steps to the left, she found another small gap in the trees. Though this one was only about two feet wide, Sacji could make out another clearing through the gap a little ways down. Turning to the side, Sachi walked through the trees, making sure not to get too close in case one of them concealed another ghostly visage.  
A minute later, she made her way out of the trees- and froze. Keito stood only a few feet away from her to her right. The little girl was hugging her arms and staring at something on the ground in front of her. Furious, Sachi advanced toward her.  
"Keito!" she yelled. "What's the matter with you! You know we aren't allowed in the woods!" She reached the girl's side and grabbed her shouldres, pulling her into a tight embrace. "I thought you would be hurt." Sachi hugged her little sister for a few moments, letting her anger and fear cool down a bit. When she let go, she looked down into Keito's face as tears welled up in her eyes. " I thought I would lose you."  
The little girl just shrugged. "Sorry." she said quietly. "I just wanted to see where she was going."  
Slowly, Sachi took a step back, a little confused at her sister's mild reaction. An image of the ghost girl's face popped into her head, and she shuddered violently. After a few seconds of just staring at eachother's faces, Keito slowly turned her head back to the place on the ground she had been staring at.  
"I think she left that." she said pointing to the ground. Sachi looked to see a rose laying on the ground. Only it wasn't a normal rose. Instead of the normal colors a rose might have, such as red petals and a green stem, both the petals and stem alike had turned the color of coal. Pure black. Sachi took a step back away from the strange thing, then looked back at her sister.  
"Keito." The little girl slowly looked back to her sister. Sachi grabbed her sister's small hand, and began to walk back to where tha gap was. But Keito wouldn't have it.  
"Stop it onna!" she yelled, trying to pry Sachi's hand away. "We have to see where she went! She wanted to show us something, I know it!" Sachi shook her head and continued walking toward the trees, half dragging Keito behind her.  
"We have to get home NOW." she said, trying to make her voice as forceful as possible. Then she stopped, and looked around. The gap she had come through, was gone. In both directions, she could see nothing but the impassible wall of trees.  
Frusterated and afraid, Sachi took a deep breath,held it, and exhaled slowly, watching her cloudy breath mingle with the fog. Keito threw off her sister's hand and took a step back toward the rose. Defeated, Sachi turned around and looked at her surroundings.  
The trees to her back curved into a horseshoe shape around them, and a small path lead through a field of knee-high, dead grass, then down into a small valley. She could make out some sort of small building at the far end of the steep sided valley, as well as some kind of stairway that marked the end of the path and went over the other side of the valley's hill. She could just make out the shape of a shinto gate beyond the stairs a little bit. But the darkness and fog made it impossible to see anything beyond that.  
Lifting her face to the sky, Sachi inhaled, held it, and let her breath out slowly. She sniffed, and rubbed her cold nose, then looked back down at the determined face of her eight-year-old sister.  
"Did she go down there?" she asked ponting down the path. Keito nodded vigorously. Sachi sighed, then began to walk down the overgrown trail. "I guess we have no choice then. Whatever she has to show us had better be important."  
Keito stood a moment, then ran to her sister's side and grabbed her hand.  
"Thank you onna-san." she said quietly. "Just don't go ahead without me."  
  
The two girls made their way down into the valley, their forms being swallowed by the hungry fog. And off in the distance, a child's playful laughter echoed through the night. 


End file.
